Afghan intelligence chief Asadullah Khalid has been wounded in a suspected suicide bombing in Kabul. The National Directorate of Security (NDS) head was injured in his lower body by the blast, interior ministry officials told the BBC.

The explosion took place in the Taymeni area of central Kabul. The Taliban said they carried out the attack.

An intelligence official said the bombing took place in one of many guesthouses used by Mr Khalid. Another intelligence official told the BBC that Mr Khalid was "safe" but did not elaborate on his condition.

However, a Western diplomat told the AFP news agency that he had been seriously wounded. Afghan officials also told AFP that he was now in hospital receiving blood transfusions.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai described the attack as "a cowardly act of terrorism".

He said that Mr Khalid is being operated on and doctors had told him that the intelligence chief "is doing well".

The attack is similar to a suicide bombing in September 2011 that killed the chairman of the Afghan High Peace Council, Burhanuddin Rabbani, officials say.

Mohamed Mohmud Yusuf Odey, one of the former 135-member constituent assembly chose the current federal MPs was assassinated by men armed with pistols in front of his house located in Nasteeho neighborhood in Mogadishu, Somali capital.

The killers have managed to escape from the scene uncaught.

The reason behin the murder of late elder is yet to be established by the local authority in Wadajir district under Somali government. Investigations are under by the Somali forces, according the officials.

[An Nahar] A Sudanese military drone went down on Wednesday in Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman, the official SUNA news agency said, but there was no apparent damage or casualties on the ground.

"A pilotless military plane has gone down" inside Omdurman, a heavily-populated area, SUNA said in a brief SMS alert which gave no further details.

Witnesses told an AFP news hound that the aircraft, about five meters (yards) long, came down in an open area of the city, far from any homes.

"The plane lay on the ground and then a number of SAF (Sudanese Armed Forces) with trucks came to the area and took it," said one witness who asked not to be identified.

In an April report, the Small Arms Survey, a Swiss-based independent research project, showed photographs of what it described as an Iranian-made Ababil-3 UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) that was reportedly shot down by rebels in South Kordofan state.

"SAF has employed similar UAVs over Darfur for reconnaissance," the report said, referring to the Sudanese Armed Forces which have been battling rebels in the far-west Darfur region for nine years.

One of the UAVs crashed in 2008 while flying over a rebel-controlled area of Darfur, Small Arms Survey said, citing the United Nations...When talk is your weapon it's hard to make yourself heard over the artillery....

[Africa Review] A kaboom and a shoot-out between Islamists and troops from the semi-autonomous Puntland...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion... region have left 31 people dead or maimed, officials say.

Fighters from the al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... group attacked a military base and planted a roadside kaboom, the officials said.

Al-Shabaab fighters have reportedly moved to Puntland in recent months.

Their move comes as African Union...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...-backed government forces gain ground in their stronghold of southern Somalia.

In October, Al-Shabaab, which is affiliated to al-Qaeda, lost control of the key port city of Kismayu to AU troops, the Somali army and a pro-government militia.

Puntland Information minister Mohamed Aydid told the BBC Somali Service that a truck carrying soldiers was targeted by a roadside kaboom near Bossaso, the main commercial hub in the semi-autonomous region.

[ToloNews] Egypt's army deployed tanks outside the presidential palace on Thursday after five demonstrators died overnight and 350 were wounded in festivities between supporters and opponents of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.

Morsi was expected to issue a statement on Thursday to address the worst violence since his June election, which has pitted Islamists against an opposition that has escalated protests since he assumed extensive powers on November 22.

Running street battles that carried on through the night outside the Itihadiya palace in northern Cairo also left 350 people maimed, many from buckshot, the official MENA news agency reported.

The opposition has said it would organise further marches to the palace as a top presidential aide accused them of coordinating with loyalists of deposed dictator Hosni Mubarak...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...

No doubt. Both would naturally disagree with the Moslem Brüderbund's plans of caliphate.

Morsi is expected to "reveal that facts and call for a dialogue," the head of his office Refaa Al-Tahtawy told the official Al-Akbar newspaper.

Did Morsi move back into the palace or is he still on an official state visit to Mauritania?

The stage was set for Wednesday's violence when Morsi's Moslem Brüderbund movement announced a march to the palace, where opposition protesters were staging a sit-in a day after tens of thousands surrounded the sprawling complex.

The stage is set. The Fates take their places, one at the loom to weave the fabric of the clash, one with her scissors to cut the life threads of those who will die this day and the days to come.

The protesters threw fire bombs and rocks at each other on Wednesday as their simmering stand-off over the president's expanded powers and a draft constitution turned violent.

Bloodied protesters were seen carried away as gunshots rang out and the rivals torched cars and set off fire crackers near the palace, where opponents of Morsi had set up tents before his supporters drove them away.

Riot police were eventually sent in to thump whoever got in the way break up the violence, but festivities still took place in side streets near the palace in the upscale neighbourhood of Heliopolis. The opposition says it will not stand down until Morsi discards his new powers, which allow him to take decisions uncontested by courts, and cancel a snap December 15 referendum on a new constitution opposed by liberals and Christians.

In the early hours of Thursday, gunshots rang out intermittently and sporadic violence continued, an AFP correspondent said. Later in the morning, a few hundred Morsi supporters remained outside the palace. The opposition protesters had left the scene.

The overnight violence had also spread beyond the capital, with protesters torching the offices of the powerful Moslem Brüderbund in the Mediterranean port city of Ismailiya and in Suez, witnesses said.

Sobhi Saleh, a Brotherhood official and member of the constituent assembly -- the body that drafted the controversial charter -- was attacked and beaten by opposition protesters in the northern city of Alexandria, MENA reported.

The Brotherhood urged protesters on both sides to withdraw, as did Prime Minister Hisham Qandil.

"You guys should let us win so as to avoid civil war."

"It's a civil war that will burn all of us," said Ahmed Fahmy, 27, as the festivities raged behind him.

"They (Islamists) attacked us, broke up our tents, and I was beaten up," said Eman Ahmed, 47. "They accused us of being traitors."

Activists among the Islamist marchers harassed television news crews, trying to prevent them from working, AFP news hounds said.

If it's not reported live in television, it didn't happen.

Wael Ali, a 40-year-old Morsi supporter with a long beard, said: "I'm here to defend democracy. The president was elected by the ballot box."

One man, one vote, one time.

The United States called for an open and "democratic dialogue".

Sure, Egypt has had a lot of that lately .. and in the past...

"The upheaval we are seeing... indicates that dialogue is urgently needed. It needs to be two-way," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton... sometimes described as The Heroine of Tuzla and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Edward Stettinius, Jr. ... said in comments echoed by Britannia and the European Union...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...Despite the protests , Vice President Mahmud Mekki said a referendum on the charter "will go ahead on time" as planned on December 15.

The opposition would be allowed to put any objections they have to articles of the draft constitution in writing, to be discussed by a parliament yet to be elected.

An interesting concept.

The written objections then will be sent to a forensics sub-committee of the parliament yet to be elected, so that the writers can be identified and arrested...

Prominent opposition leader and former United Nations...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involves making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country... nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradeiEgyptian law scholar and Iranian catspaw. He was head of the IAEA from December 1997 to November 2009. At some point during his tenure he was purchased by the Iranians. ElBaradei and the IAEA were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for something in 2005. After stepping down from his IAEA position ElBaradei attempted to horn in on the 2011 Egyptian protests which culminated in the collapse of the Mubarak regime. ElBaradei served on the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group, a lefty NGO that is bankrolled by the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as George Soros' Open Society Institute. Soros himself serves as a member of the organization's Executive Committee.
said Morsi bore "full responsibility" for the violence.

Who would have thought that El-Baradei would emerge as a champion of democracy. Assuming that that's what he's doing, which I wouldn't assume at all...

He said the opposition was ready for dialogue but they would use "any means necessary" to scupper the charter, but stressed that these would be peaceful.

Meanwhile,...back at the sandwich shop, Caroline was experimenting with ingredients of increasing volatility... three of Morsi's advisers resigned over the crisis, MENA reported, naming Amr al-Laythi, Seif Abdel Fattah and Ayman al-Sayyad.

#1
related to the story above, the head of the egypt constitution referendum committee resigned two days after being appointed

Morsi's actions have made his motivation transparent. He called for dictatorial power for two months to allow a constitution referendum, then he rushed the constitution writers to finish in 48 hours, then he set Dec 15 as the date for the referendum. This was obviously to avoid people seriously debating the terms of the constitution.

[Reuters] Islamists battled with protesters outside Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi's palace on Thursday, after his vice president suggested amendments could be agreed to the draft constitution that has divided the nation.

Fires burned in the streets near the palace perimeter where opponents and supporters of Mursi threw stones and petrol bombs. Riot police tried to separate the two sides, but failed to halt fighting that extended from Wednesday into the early morning.

Residents, frustrated that police had not calmed the streets, set up makeshift road blocks nearby to check passers-by, scenes reminiscent of the popular uprising that toppled Mursi's autocratic predecessor Hosni Mubarak...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...Medical sources said 211 people were maimed, some with gunshot wounds.

Mursi's opponents accused him of creating a new autocracy by awarding himself extraordinary powers in a decree on November 22 and were further angered when an Islamist-dominated assembly pushed through a draft constitution that opponents said did not properly represent the aspirations of the whole nation.

[An Nahar] Almost 200 Libyan prisoners have beat feet from a jail in the southern town of Sabha in unclear circumstances, officials said on Wednesday.

"One hundred and ninety-seven prisoners escaped the prison of Sabha yesterday (Tuesday)," a member of the security services told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"Judiciary police, who control the prison, facilitated the escape of the detainees, the majority of them common criminals," said the source, a former rebel in Libya's 2011 revolution.

Supporters of Muammar Qadaffy...a reminder that a single man with an idea can change an entire nation, usually for the worse..., the former dictator who was ousted and killed during last year's armed uprising, were also among the detainees.

Suad Ganun, who represents Sabha in the national assembly, confirmed the escape of "250 prisoners," blaming it on the failure of the authorities to address insecurity in the south.

"Members who represent southern cities have been boycotting the assembly's plenary sessions since Tuesday in protest over deteriorating security in their region," she added.

Ganun accused the authorities of ignoring the warnings of elected representatives, with Sabha's jailbreak marking "the final straw".

Sabha, a desert town about 800 kilometers (500 miles) south of Tripoli...a confusing city, one end of thich is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn..., had plunged into chaos due to rising crime, illegal immigration and drug trafficking, she said.

Libyan authorities have retaken control of several prisons previously in the hands of former rebels who fought to overthrow the Qadaffy regime.

But ex-rebels view the regular police force as incompetent, blaming it for the escape in October of 120 prisoners from a Tripoli jail that had recently come back under state control.

[An Nahar] Supporters and opponents of Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi lobbed Molotov cocktails and rocks at each other Wednesday as their standoff over his expanded powers and an Islamist-drafted constitution turned violent and left two people dead.

Bloodied protesters were seen being carried away as gunshots could be heard and the fierce political rivals torched cars and set off firecrackers, before riot police were deployed in a bid to end the confrontations.

Ahmed al-Tayyeb, the grand imam of the Cairo-based Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's highest authority, called for restraint and dialogue, and two of Morsi's advisers resigned over the crisis.

At the heart of the battle is a decree issued by the Islamist president expanding his powers and allowing him to put to a referendum the disputed constitution.

His declaration on November 22 has sparked deadly protests and strikes, but Vice President Mahmoud Mekki said on Wednesday that the December 15 referendum would go ahead as planned.

Even after the riot police deployed to break up the violence, the rival camps still clashed in side streets near the palace in the upscale Cairo neighborhood of Heliopolis.

"It's a civil war that will burn all of us," said Ahmed Fahmy, 27, as the fighting raged behind him.

"This is a failure of a president. He is waging war against his own people," 56-year-old Khaled Ahmed told Agence La Belle France Presse near the presidential palace.

The festivities erupted after thousands of Islamists rallying to the call of the Moslem Brüderbund bore down on the palace, tearing down opposition tents and chanting that they would "cleanse" the area.

The two sides threw stones at each other before the secular-leaning opposition protesters, who had besieged the palace in their tens of thousands on Tuesday, escaped into side streets.

The opposition, he said, would be allowed to put any objections they have to articles of the constitution in writing, to be discussed by a parliament yet to be elected.

"There is a real political will to respond to the demands of the opposition," he told journalists.

Prominent opposition leader and former U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradeiEgyptian law scholar and Iranian catspaw. He was head of the IAEA from December 1997 to November 2009. At some point during his tenure he was purchased by the Iranians. ElBaradei and the IAEA were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for something in 2005. After stepping down from his IAEA position ElBaradei attempted to horn in on the 2011 Egyptian protests which culminated in the collapse of the Mubarak regime. ElBaradei served on the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group, a lefty NGO that is bankrolled by the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as George Soros' Open Society Institute. Soros himself serves as a member of the organization's Executive Committee. said Morsi bore "full responsibility" for the violence and that his regime was losing more legitimacy every day.

He said the opposition, jointly led by former Arab League...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... chief Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa... who was head of the Arab League for approximately two normal lifespans, accomplishing nothing that was obvious to the casual observer ... and ex-presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi, was ready for dialogue on condition Morsi's decree be rescinded.

"We will not sit down for any dialogue without the cancellation of the constitutional declaration," he told news hounds, describing Morsi's regime as "oppressive and autocratic".

"The revolution did not happen for this. It happened for freedom, democracy and human dignity," said ElBaradei.

"Morsi must listen to the people, whose voice is loud and clear. There is no legitimacy in excluding the majority of the people. There is no legitimacy in enabling one group to dominate Egypt," he said in reference to the Brotherhood, on whose ticket Morsi ran for office.

Earlier Islamist rallies converged outside the palace, where hundreds of anti-Morsi protesters had spent the night, forcing the opposition to leave the area.

"They (Islamists) attacked us, broke up our tents, and I was beaten up," said Eman Ahmed, 47. "They accused us of being traitors."

Protesters from the Islamist marches harassed television news crews, trying to prevent them from working.

"I'm here to defend democracy. The president was elected by the ballot box. The opposition protesters bravely ran away as they can't face our strength," said Wael Ali, a 40-year-old Morsi supporter with a long beard.

As the country faces its most divisive...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled... crisis since Morsi took power in June, the United States called for an open and "democratic dialogue".

"The upheaval we are seeing... indicates that dialogue is urgently needed. It needs to be two-way," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton... sometimes described as For a good time at 3 a.m. call Hillary and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Edward Everett ... told journalists in the Belgian capital.

Morsi insists the measures are aimed at cutting short a tumultuous transition but opponents have accused him of choosing an autocratic path.

Two Mexican military aviators were killed Wednesday morning in an Mexican Navy airplane crash in Baja California Sur, in Mexico, according to Mexican news accounts.

According to a news account posted on the website of Proceso news weekly, the men who died were identified as Mexican Navy Lieutenant Commander Adrisan Ignacio Gonzalez Vargas and Mexican Air Force Major Alfonso Barajas Jesus Verduzco. Both men were flight instructors.

According to the report, the two military men were on a training mission aboard a Moravan Zlin 242L single engine aircraft at about 1130 hrs when the aircraft crashed. The location of the crash was 36 kilometers southeast of La Paz, Baja California Sur.

The pilot and passenger were flying out of the naval aviation school in La Paz, part of the Mexican 2nd Naval Zone. The aircraft was destroyed in the crash.

Unknown attackers shot and killed a television journalist for Vesti-VGTRK in Nalchik, the capital of Russia's Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkariya. Russian sources identified the slain reporter as Kazbek Gekkiev.

Co-workers said Gekkiev had finished the evening news broadcast and was returning home when he was attacked. He was reportedly shot in the head. The TV station said "extremists" had earlier threatened to kill two other employees who were taken off the air for their own safety.

A Bosnian court on Thursday sentenced an Islamist who opened fire at the US embassy in Sarajevo last year to 18 years in prison.

"Mevlid Jasarevic committed a terrorist act by shooting 105 bullets over 50 minutes towards the American embassy," judge Branko Peric said. "This court sentences him to 18 years in prison."

Jasarevic opened fire on the embassy in October 2011 with an automatic weapon before being shot by police and arrested. One police officer was injured in the attack.

"Jasarevic wanted to express his dissatisfaction with the position of Muslims in Bosnia and the world," the judge said.

The court rejected the charges that Jasarevic had organised a terrorist group but the sentence was the heaviest ever handed out by the Bosnian judiciary on terrorism charges.

The court acquitted his two co-accused, Emrah Fojnica and Munib Ahmetspahic, charged with helping him prepare the October 28 attack and later covering up evidence.

The three defendants were not in court when the verdict was announced.

"We are satisfied with the sentence given to Mevlid Jasarevic as it is almost the maximum one for the act of terrorism," the prosecutor's spokeswoman Selma Hecimovic said.

"However, we will lodge an appeal for the part of the verdict acquitting Emrah Fojnica and Munib Ahmetspahic because we consider that they had helped Jasarevic to commit the terrorist act," Hecimovic told AFP.

In January the pirates fired at The Valdarno tanker off the Yemeni coast but the crew managed to escape.

Soon a helicopter with Italian marines arrived at the site and the pirates were set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lockDrop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!.

[An Nahar] Turkish troops have killed 13 Kurdish rebels during festivities that erupted Tuesday in a mountainous area in southern Turkey near Syria, the local governor's office said Wednesday.

Backed by air power, the Turkish army launched an offensive against Death Eaters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the Amanos mountains and festivities were continuing on Wednesday, the governor's office added.

The PKK, labeled as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, took up arms for autonomy in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives.

The Turkish military has beefed up border security with tanks and troops amid the escalating civil war in neighboring Syria. Some government officials have tied the recent upsurge in attacks to the chaos there.

[boston.com] A man suspected of being the ringleader of a plot to kill Americans and bomb U.S. military bases overseas has been returned from Afghanistan, authorities said Wednesday.

American Sohiel Omar Kabir, 34, made his first court appearance Tuesday in the U.S. after he was captured by U.S. special forces in Afghanistan last month, said his attorney, Deputy Federal Public Defender Jeffrey Aaron.

Kabir has not yet entered a plea after being charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. He is being held without bond and scheduled to appear in court Dec. 11.

Meanwhile,...back at the abandoned silver mine, the water was up to Jack's neck and still rising... Ralph Deleon and Arifeen Gojail, both 21, and Miguel Santana Vidriales, 23, pleaded not guilty"Wudn't me." Wednesday after being indicted on the same charge.

If convicted, each of the four defendants could face up to 15 years in prison.

Deleon, Vidriales and Gojali were tossed in the clinkYouse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! as they waited to board a plane headed for Istanbul on their way to Afghanistan to meet with Kabir, authorities said.

In video calls from Afghanistan, Kabir told the trio he would arrange meetings with terrorists, Sherlocks said.

The group prepared for their trip to the Middle East by simulating combat with paintball rifles and concocting cover stories, court documents state.

Authorities don't believe there were any plans for an attack in the U.S., but Deleon and Vidriales told a confidential FBI informant they would consider American jihad, according to an FBI affidavit.

The case against Kabir is based on hearsay statements from co-defendants and an FBI informant, Aaron said, adding that federal prosecutors have turned over few documents since the arrest.

He added that his client suffered physical injuries to his face and head when he was captured in Kabul, where he was staying with family members.

''He wasn't hospitalized but he probably should have been,'' Aaron said.

FBI front man Laura Eimiller said Kabir suffered ''combat-related injuries'' during his capture. The injuries were treated by American medical personnel and he was cleared to be taken back to the U.S.

Kabir, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Afghanistan, served in the Air Force from 2000 to 2001 and introduced Deleon and Santana to radical Islamic doctrine, Sherlocks said. Gojali, also a U.S. citizen, was recruited in late September.

Experts who study homegrown terrorism said the case highlights the susceptibility to radicalization of new converts to Islam, particularly among the young.

[Dawn] Two Muttahida Qaumi Movement...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... activists and a worker of the Sunni Tehrik...formed in Karachi in 1992 under by Muhammad Saleem Qadri. It quickly fell to trading fisticuffs and liquidations with the MQM and the Sipah-e-Sahaba, with at least a half dozen of its major leaders rubbed out. Sunni Tehreek arose to become the primary opposition to the Deobandi Binori Mosque, headed by Nizamuddin Shamzai, who was eventually bumped off by person or persons unknown. ST's current leadership has heavily criticized the Deobandi Jihadi leaders, accusing them of being sponsored by Indian Intelligence agencies as well as involvement in terrorist activities... were among the five persons bumped off in different parts of the city on Tuesday, while yet another man was stabbed to death.

Police said the first incident took place at around 8.30am near the Numaish intersection within the remit of the Jamshed Quarters cop shoppe, where gunnies riding a cycle of violence targeted Mohammad Siddiqui, 35.

The victim was driving his pickup when he was attacked. He suffered six gunshot wounds and died before he could be taken to the Civil Hospital Bloody Karachi...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous.... The suspects fled after the shooting, the police said.

The victim was an activist of the MQM. He was a resident of Jamshed Quarters No 1 and father of three.

Following the killing tension gripped the localities along Jamshed Road and Jehangir Road, where shops and markets were closed. Incidents of firing were also reported in different areas.

In another incident later in the day, another worker of the MQM was targeted by gunnies in Nazimabad No 2.

Police said the incident took place in Nazimabad No 2 within the remit of the Gulbahar cop shoppe, where assailants riding a cycle of violence opened fire on Mohammad Rehan, 25, who was sitting outside an apartment building.

The suspects riding a cycle of violenceexpeditiously departed at a goodly pace after the shooting, the police said.

The victim was rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH), where he was pronounced dead.He's dead, Jim!on arrival.

A large number of party workers gathered at the ASH after learning about the incident.

Following the killing tension gripped different parts of Nazimabad No 2.

In the third incident, an activist of the Sunni Tehrik was targeted in PIB Colony on Tuesday night.

Police said the incident took place near a petrol station. Two suspects escaped.

An ST front man said Zahid Qadri, 35, was a member of the party's PIB Colony sector committee. After offering Maghrib prayers at Faran Masjid, he was riding his cycle of violence home when gunnies targeted him, the front man said.

The victim was a resident of PIB Colony and father of two.

PIB Colony and Jamshed Quarters police officials bickered over the jurisdiction of scene of the crime after the killing.

Other incidents
An unidentified man was killed by a lone suspect near Banaras Chowk on Tuesday.

Police said the incident took place at a tea stall near the Banaras bridge, where a young man having tea was shot at by the suspect who was on foot.

The suspect fled following the shooting. Police shifted the body to the ASH, where the victim was pronounced dead on arrival. He could not be immediately identified as he had nothing in possession that could establish his identity. Following the medico-legal formalities, the body was shifted to the Edhi morgue, the police said.

In another incident, a man was rubbed out on resistance to a robbery attempt in Mehmoodabad.

Police said the incident took place within the remit of the Mehmoodabad cop shoppe, where Mohammad Arshad buying vegetables from the market was held at gunpoint by suspects, who demanded valuables from him. As the victim tried to put up resistance, the suspects shot him and fled, said a police brass hat of the area.

The victim was rushed to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where he died during treatment.

He was a resident of the same area where the incident took place.

In yet another incident, a young man was stabbed to death in a locality off the Superhighway.

The police said the victim, Gul Ahmed, 30, was stabbed to death by assailants at Afghani Camp within the remit of the Sohrab Goth cop shoppe.

The victim was taken to the ASH, where he was pronounced dead.He's dead, Jim!on arrival.

[An Nahar] Two jacket wallahs targeted Pakistain's main army camp in a key tribal district on the Afghan border Wednesday, killing two soldiers and damaging a field hospital, officials said.

A military official said two suicide bombers drove a double cabin vehicle to the gate of the camp, seven kilometers (four miles) northwest of Wana, the main town of South Wazoo.

"Two suicide bombers in an car bomb tried to target Zarai Noor Camp. The soldiers spotted the car 100 meters from the camp. Both bombers were blown up in the car and two soldiers were also martyred," the official said.

The district administration chief said the car smashed into a barrier at the camp.

"Two suicide bombers hit the barrier with their vehicle at the main gate of the camp. The gate and a small hospital inside the camp were damaged in the attack," Shahid Ullah told Agence La Belle France Presse.

South Waziristan is a stronghold of Pak warlord Mullah Nazir, who sends men into Afghanistan to fight U.S. and NATO...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... troops. He was maimed in a suicide kaboom in Wana on November 29, according to officials.

Attacks on teachers continued in southern Thailand as terrorists insurgents shot a teacher in the back as he was leaving school in Narathiwat province. Teerapon Chusongsaeng was rushed to the hospital with two gunshot wounds and was in critical condition at press time.

The teacher was traveling home on a motorcycle when four men on two motorbikes followed and shot at him. Teerapon is the third teacher to be attacked in the province in the past two weeks. Two other teachers were gunned down before this latest attack.

Sanguan Intarak, leader of the Federation of Narathiwat Teachers, said teachers in the province had decided to hold an urgent meeting today to discuss the mounting violence and find ways to protect themselves more effectively. Teachers have been concerned about their safety after the principal of an elementary school in Nong Chik district was gunned down on November 22 and another teacher shot dead on Monday night.

Chatsuda Nilsuwan was gunned down while traveling home on a motorcycle from the Ban Tango elementary school. This school had first been torched in an arson attack in April, which completely destroyed the main building. Since then classes have been held in the storeroom, canteen and makeshift tents.

More than 300 government schools in southernmost provinces of Thailand decided to open their doors on Monday for the first time since the November 22 shooting. However, after a meeting yesterday, security authorities and teachers representatives decided to keep 17 schools in Narathiwat closed tomorrow and on Friday so students and teachers can attend Chatsuda's funeral in her home province of Yala. The 17 schools will open again on Tuesday since next Monday is a public holiday.

Separately, terrorists insurgents bombed a CD shop and the home of a police officer in Pattani province on Monday night. The attacks left two people wounded and four houses damaged.

At 9:45 p.m. police were alerted that a bomb had exploded at the CD shop and the home of Pol Captain Pong Obma, a deputy police chief in Yaring district. Police officers discovered the debris of a motorcycle and remains of an explosive in front of the shop. The bomb apparently damaged the CD outlet as well as houses nearby rented by police officers. The explosion also slightly injured the owner of the shop and her daughter.

Witnesses say that the owner, Sangvien Tana, was about to close the shop when four men on three motorcycles stopped and two walked into the shop asking to rent CDs. However, Sangvien told the men, who kept their helmets on, that she was about to close. The two men then made small talk with her while their other two companions placed an explosive on a shelf before leaving.

Another motorcycle fitted with explosives was later parked outside the police captain's home nearby. The bomb inside the shop exploded about three minutes after the men left and the motorcycle bomb outside the police officer's house went off about 10 minutes later.

[An Nahar] Clashes renewed on Wednesday evening in the rival Tripoli...a confusing city, one end of thich is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen after a brief lull, as the army made contacts with the warring parties and fired back at the sources of gunfire, especially sniper fire.

An Energa-type rifle-launched grenade fell in the vicinity of al-Mallouleh area and was followed by an exchange of gunfire between Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh, LBCI television reported.

A security official told Agence La Belle France Presse that sniper fire killed seven civilians in on Tuesday and Wednesday in the two rival districts.

The security official said four were killed on Wednesday, while three others died the day before.

"Khodr Hanoub, a man in his 40s, was killed at dawn Wednesday in the district of Bab al-Tabbaneh," the official said, adding that Ali Habbabeh was killed in the adjacent district of Jabal Mohsen.

The official also reported the killing in Bab al-Tabbaneh of Zakaria Othman and Mehdi al-Beik on Wednesday, while Khaled Salem, 27, was killed overnight.

They died a day after kiosk owner Mohammed Ibrahim, 65, was killed in Jabal Mohsen by a sniper operating from across the street-turned-front line separating the two impoverished neighborhoods.

While there was a lull in fighting on Wednesday, snipers held their positions and continued to shoot, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.

The official reported 57 people maimed altogether, including two soldiers.

The National News Agency said that the armed festivities intensified during day hours between fighters in the areas of Qobbeh, al-Mankoubin, Mallouleh, Bab al-Tabbaneh, and Syria Street and others in Jabal Mohsen.

The army has been returning fire against the sources of gunshots.

The Army Command said in a statement its troops "staged patrols, erected checkpoints and fired back immediately at the sources of gunfire," noting that five people were tossed in the slammerDrop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! on suspicion of involvement in the shooting and that a quantity of weapons and ammunition was found in their possession.

"Two soldiers were maimed in the security operations as some military vehicles sustained material damage," said the statement.

The detainees and the confiscated items were handed over to the relevant judicial authorities, according to the statement.

Light and medium weapons could be heard in the battles, as well as sounds of rocket-propelled grenades.

Earlier on Wednesday, a meeting was held at the residence of al-Mustaqbal... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... MP Mohammed Kabbara to discuss the developments in the northern city.

The meeting was held in the presence of State Minister Ahmed Karami, Ahmed al-Safadi representing Finance Minister Mohammed al-Safadi, MPs Samir al-Jisr, Moein al-Merehbi, Khaled al-Daher and several other officials.

The attendees urged the rival neighborhoods to end all the armed festivities under the auspices of the army, calling on it to control the situation in the city.

"We should find a permanent solution to the recurrence of the incidents," Kabbara told news hounds after the meeting.

[An Nahar] A mortar shell fired from war-torn Syria slammed into the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights on Wednesday without causing any casualties or damage, the Israeli army said.

"A shell fired during fighting in Syria landed by mistake on the center of the Golan plateau," an Israeli army spokeswoman said.

Such incidents have occurred with increasing frequency in the past few weeks as violence from the civil war in Syria spills across the ceasefire line.

In November, Israel responded with artillery after gunfire from Syria hit an army vehicle but caused no injuries, in the first instance of Israeli fire directed at the Syrian military in the Golan since their 1973 war.

[An Nahar] The deputy governor of the northern Syrian province of Raqa and several aides resigned on Wednesday to protest the security forces' interference in their work, a monitoring group and an activist said.

"They resigned in protest over interference in their work by the security forces, and also to denounce the diversion of basic commodities from Raqa to other provinces, including flour and fuel," an anti-regime activist told AFP via the Internet.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the report.

"The deputy governor, Ali Haddad, and members of his executive bureau have resigned," said the Observatory, which listed the names of eight officials who left their posts.

Tens of thousands of Syrians forced to flee their homes in flashpoint areas of the strife-torn country have sought shelter in Raqa, which borders Turkey.

"The humanitarian situation here is very bad. Bread now costs $2 (1.53 euros), if you can find bread at all," said the activist, who identified himself as Thaer. On Wednesday, "the air force bombarded eight areas of the province."

A peace protest against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-AssadScourge of Qusayr... that broke out in March last year turned into an armed insurgency after a brutal crackdown by the regime.

[Dawn] Warplanes on Wednesday pounded suburbs of Damascus...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... as regime forces fought to reclaim rebel-held areas of the capital, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said.

The Britannia-based watchdog, which uses a countrywide network of activists and doctors to compile its tolls, said at least 123 people were killed on Tuesday, including some 30 in and around Damascus.

Damascus has now become the focus of festivities. Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-AssadSupressor of the Damascenes...'s forces on Tuesday blasted a string of rebel zones on the eastern and southwestern outskirts of the city.

"The air force is bombarding Mleha and Zabdine" in southeast Damascus, the Observatory said, adding that Daraya to the southwest was under artillery fire, amid festivities at Saqba to the east.

Battles east of Damascus have grown especially bloody as troops try to push back rebels in the Eastern Ghouta region who have inched closer towards the capital.

Warplanes on Wednesday flew over the area, through which passes the road to Damascus international airport.

The watchdog also reported security force swooped on several areas in the city centre.

More than 41,000 people have been killed as the Syrian conflict approaches the 21-month mark, according to the Observatory.

Al-Watan, a daily close to the government, said on Wednesday the army "continues to hunt gangs along the road to the international airport, killing or wounding dozens of terrorists" -- the regime's term for rebels.

In the northwest, seven soldiers were killed in "a rebel attack on a checkpoint south of Maaret al-Numan on the Aleppo...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins...-Damascus road," the Observatory said.

There was also fighting around the Wadi Deif military base, which has been under siege since rebels took Maaret al-Numan in October, it reported.

The festivities come a day after NATO...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... approved member state Turkey's request for Patriot missiles to defend its border following a series of warnings to Damascus not to use chemical weapons.

On Monday, US President Barack ObamaI inhaled. That was the point... warned Assad against using chemical weapons, saying there would be "consequences" for such an action.

A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.